Fresh from the Australian RecentChangesCamp, Mark will join us for a few words. Co-founder of WikiIndex, media guru of the UniversalEditButton, and other wiki related projects, few individuals are more knowledgeable about the concept of wiki. You won't find a more reasonable and sane wiki zealot. He will however extol the virtues of WikiLeaks.

'Wiki Hater' & "Hailing from the Rustbelt" - Brian Kerr

Brian just trekked across the country to the fine town of Tacoma, WA - no one knows Civic Wikis better in the area! He spent many a moon working on ArborWiki and has special knowledge of analyzing the traffic of a wiki.

Venue

The venue will be the historic center of the Multnomah County Library system, Central Library. Dave has booked the room from 12pm-6pm, allowing us ample time for pre-event setup and post-event cleanup. Thanks Dave, Mark, and Pete, who have all pitched in to help locate a venue!

Activities

free drinks/food

wiki cupcake decorating: design, frost and build your own cupcake with various toppings!

awesome speakers

brief overview of PortlandWiki and its history, plus how it's different now since launch in September 2009

identify what needs to be done

secure activity commitments from attendees

if time, have collaborative editing session

free door prizes/raffle!

Ways to promote activity after initial commitment

frequent follow-up meetings that are fun or otherwise personally worthwhile

rewards (mentioned below)

(Good) reasons to edit

For Portland enthusiasts

Share your love and knowledge about Portland and all its quirks

Learn pieces of Portland's story from fun and enthusiastic peers

Get to know your neighbors; participate in discussion about local issues

For wiki people

Are you already working on one or more wikis? Maybe one for your organization, or for Wikipedia? Here's why it might be fun to work on Portlandwiki, too!

Exchange ideas about wikis; show off your work, learn from others.

Help build a network of wiki and free culture enthusiasts in Portland. Portland has a rich history in the wiki and free culture worlds; this is a way to extend and express it.

Be part of something innovative!! We can be more nimble than a big wiki like Wikipedia. Is there a way to mash up our content with OpenStreetMap? Let's find out! Want to try out a cool new wiki extension? Let's give it a whirl! It's fun to fool with wikis with other wiki folk.

For businesses

Bring a little local traffic to your web site

Network in your neighborhood; get to know your neighbors and neighboring businesses

For non-profit organizations

Establish your role in Portland's story

Ways to edit (or, what we need)

These include long-term as well as short-term goals.

creating new articles and improving existing ones

goal: 10 impressive articles, worth showing anyone!

goal: 500 very basic articles (descriptive sentence or two, a url or two, perhaps a few standardized section headers [history, etc] a few categories)

Done - February 2 10-11am - Dave, Kotra, Mark, and anyone else interested meets with Marie at MMT to discuss if they can spare some office space or a conference room on Wednesday evenings for us to host WikiWednesdays

Post-event

Big Picture

Community communications with tools like wikis, social media and networks, and digital media augment our back fence, water cooler and school yard relationships. One effect that caught us all by surprise is how such added value levels the playing field on scales local and global, creating a new equanimity.

The wiki is a strong positive force, as new media proves that community voice is the province of a conscious, alert and informed citizenry. It is heard when individuals and groups collectively speak their understanding of their community and its relationships to the world. While political and social power may seem the province of the wealthy, famous or politically connected, such is only at the leisure of communities in aggregate.

Thus, a video recorded to FaceBook sparks a peaceful protest of six Arabic countries and a student's science question is answered by an astronaut in space. But beyond the super short length and life span of a tweet, or the artificial limits and controls on the social groups of FaceBook, wikis are a place where *eveyone's* voice is heard, commented on and retained for posterity, using links, articles, collaborative writing and editing, video, audio, and even interactive media. Wikis are the digital media method to document and share knowledge on all things large and small, from deceptive government and corporate practices to a compendium of globally contributed knowledge and right down to local little league softball rankings. Limits are set only by the the users intention of the wiki's purpose.

Civic wikis, like PortlandWiki, offer a unique focal point, where people can organize, plan, and deliberate control of their communities for the benefit of the people who live there.[2] Frequently conversations at our Monday Meets or WikiWednesday meetups center on meaningful subjects. Rather than "a moment on the lips, an eternity on the hips"[3] sense, it's more like a "wow, that's totally deep"[4][5] sense. For our community Barnraising event, we hope to draw out a collective theme around the "What's our motivation?" question.

So, what's your motivation? Why PortlandWiki? What are some of the possibilities that can emerge? What are your thoughts and ideas? How can PortlandWiki contribute to the entire Portland community? What can PortlandWiki do for you and the "barn" your real or virtual community in Portland needs?